The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

High-power and high-brightness fiber sources

High-power and high-brightness fiber sources
High-power and high-brightness fiber sources
Over the past few years, the fiber lasers and amplifiers have advanced from low-power systems for telecommunication applications to multi kW level sources suitable for industrial applications such as materials processing. Fiber lasers offer unique characteristics that derive from the use of a waveguide and the properties of rare-earth (RE) doped glass, and have outstanding advantages, such as high brightness, high efficiency, excellent beam quality, and compactness compared to traditional gas and solid state lasers. Furthermore, the high surface-to-volume ratio of fiber gives them excellent capability of heat dissipation. With the development of cladding pumping (CP) technology based on the novel fiber geometry called double clad fiber (DCF), the output power of fiber laser has dramatically increased recently. The DCF comprises a second light-guiding section which acts as an inner cladding and surrounds the RE doped core, with dimensions much bigger than the core diameter. A multimode laser diode is launched into the inner cladding of the DCF and gets absorbed by the RE ions in the core, and through stimulated emission either amplifies a signal guided by the core or produce laser beam. The core can be single mode to generate a diffraction limited output beam of higher brightness than the pump beam. Therefore, the CP technology offers an efficient way to convert the low-brightness of powerful multimode laser diodes into high-brightness laser light with high output power. Advances in fiber manufacturing technology and availability of reliable high-power multimode diode pump sources, and the inherent power scalability of cladding-pumped fibers, has led to the recent demonstration of output power beyond 1 kW in CW with diffraction limited beam quality from ytterbium doped fiber laser operating at 1.1 µm. In this presentation, we review recent dramatic advances in high-power and high-brightness fiber based sources in the near infrared region between 0.9 - 2 µm with particular attention to various aspects of fiber technology development, from novel fiber geometries to tailoring the optical properties of RE ions in the fiber core, suitable for high power generation.
Sahu, J.K.
009f5fb3-6555-411a-9a0c-9a1b5a29ceb2
Nilsson, J.
f41d0948-4ca9-4b93-b44d-680ca0bf157b
Jeong, Y.
85777b88-d35d-4e46-addb-1894fde2385d
Kim, J.
611401fb-38dd-4c8a-a240-d8b21ca969a6
Dupriez, P.
4a46a78f-54e8-4611-822f-b55db0c37239
Yoo, S.
4714ed34-2088-4d00-a4bb-9d153384c36e
Boyland, A.J.
7f024ca8-d41f-4aa2-9536-9baa0b8c892e
Webb, A.
dfbf7223-9771-4465-9770-2e535e9f11d0
Payne, D.N.
4f592b24-707f-456e-b2c6-8a6f750e296d
Sahu, J.K.
009f5fb3-6555-411a-9a0c-9a1b5a29ceb2
Nilsson, J.
f41d0948-4ca9-4b93-b44d-680ca0bf157b
Jeong, Y.
85777b88-d35d-4e46-addb-1894fde2385d
Kim, J.
611401fb-38dd-4c8a-a240-d8b21ca969a6
Dupriez, P.
4a46a78f-54e8-4611-822f-b55db0c37239
Yoo, S.
4714ed34-2088-4d00-a4bb-9d153384c36e
Boyland, A.J.
7f024ca8-d41f-4aa2-9536-9baa0b8c892e
Webb, A.
dfbf7223-9771-4465-9770-2e535e9f11d0
Payne, D.N.
4f592b24-707f-456e-b2c6-8a6f750e296d

Sahu, J.K., Nilsson, J., Jeong, Y., Kim, J., Dupriez, P., Yoo, S., Boyland, A.J., Webb, A. and Payne, D.N. (2006) High-power and high-brightness fiber sources. Photonics 2006, Hyderabad, India. 13 - 16 Dec 2006.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Other)

Abstract

Over the past few years, the fiber lasers and amplifiers have advanced from low-power systems for telecommunication applications to multi kW level sources suitable for industrial applications such as materials processing. Fiber lasers offer unique characteristics that derive from the use of a waveguide and the properties of rare-earth (RE) doped glass, and have outstanding advantages, such as high brightness, high efficiency, excellent beam quality, and compactness compared to traditional gas and solid state lasers. Furthermore, the high surface-to-volume ratio of fiber gives them excellent capability of heat dissipation. With the development of cladding pumping (CP) technology based on the novel fiber geometry called double clad fiber (DCF), the output power of fiber laser has dramatically increased recently. The DCF comprises a second light-guiding section which acts as an inner cladding and surrounds the RE doped core, with dimensions much bigger than the core diameter. A multimode laser diode is launched into the inner cladding of the DCF and gets absorbed by the RE ions in the core, and through stimulated emission either amplifies a signal guided by the core or produce laser beam. The core can be single mode to generate a diffraction limited output beam of higher brightness than the pump beam. Therefore, the CP technology offers an efficient way to convert the low-brightness of powerful multimode laser diodes into high-brightness laser light with high output power. Advances in fiber manufacturing technology and availability of reliable high-power multimode diode pump sources, and the inherent power scalability of cladding-pumped fibers, has led to the recent demonstration of output power beyond 1 kW in CW with diffraction limited beam quality from ytterbium doped fiber laser operating at 1.1 µm. In this presentation, we review recent dramatic advances in high-power and high-brightness fiber based sources in the near infrared region between 0.9 - 2 µm with particular attention to various aspects of fiber technology development, from novel fiber geometries to tailoring the optical properties of RE ions in the fiber core, suitable for high power generation.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 2006
Venue - Dates: Photonics 2006, Hyderabad, India, 2006-12-13 - 2006-12-16

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 46141
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/46141
PURE UUID: 2d12d099-acfc-461e-b308-f9aceda6efd9
ORCID for J.K. Sahu: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3560-6152
ORCID for J. Nilsson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1691-7959

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 24 May 2007
Last modified: 07 Feb 2023 02:43

Export record

Contributors

Author: J.K. Sahu ORCID iD
Author: J. Nilsson ORCID iD
Author: Y. Jeong
Author: J. Kim
Author: P. Dupriez
Author: S. Yoo
Author: A.J. Boyland
Author: A. Webb
Author: D.N. Payne

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×